Bank accounts for offshore companies

Opening a bank account for an offshore company is a challenging task today. This is especially true for European banks. However, it is not impossible and our experts will gladly help you set up a bank account for your offshore company. Please read on to find out what difficulties may be encountered in the process and how they can be overcome with our assistance. 

What banks will open accounts for offshore companies

Thousands of banks provide financial services to customers throughout the world. At the same time, opening a bank account for an offshore company has become quite difficult since recent times. Offshore jurisdictions have fallen under pressure on the part of OECD and FATF and the banks are very closely monitored by the international financial authorities. 

Nevertheless, an offshore company remains an effective business instrument that helps manage the assets, plan taxes, and engage into international business. But to become functional any offshore company needs a corporate bank account. What banks are ready to service companies that are registered in the black/ grey list jurisdictions?   

We have several ready-made solutions that will allow establishing a bank account for your offshore company. Probably, the most optimal of them are the opportunities to set up accounts with neobanks (digital banks) or with payment systems. This is the fastest and the most efficient way to start business operations if you have a company registered in an offshore jurisdiction. 

In addition to that, we have established close working relationships with many traditional banks that will agree to open accounts for offshore companies. These banks are located in Europe, America, Asia, the Caribbean region, Georgia, Armenia, Russia, Ukraine, and so on. To help you select the best banking service provider for your offshore company we need to understand the specifics of your company: where exactly it is registered, for what purposes, what business areas it is involved in, who the company founder is, who manages it, who the company counteragents are, and so on.

How to set up a bank account for an offshore company

We highly recommend that you should apply for our preapproval service to begin with. We will analyze the company information that you will have provided to us and then apply for a preapproval to several banks at a time. 

If your application for banking services is preapproved by several financial institutions, you will be able to choose the one that suits you best in terms of its conditions, commissions, and geographical location. 

Banking specialties  

Roughly, we can say that banks all over the world specialize to two areas:

• Those focused on transaction management and
• Those focused on protecting and growing capital. 

The first group that can be dubbed ‘current account banks’ are usually less demanding to prospective clients. They also lay down simple rules of cooperation. Sometimes, you can even find a bank that does not require making any initial deposit nor having a security deposit. Such banks will readily issue pay cards to their customers, offer overdrafts, bank guarantees, and other services. Banks of this type can be found in Scandinavian states, Baltic states, the USA, and Hong Kong.   

The second group that can be dubbed ‘savings account banks’ are more demanding to the prospective clients. An offshore company owner will find it hard to acquire services from such a bank and it would not make much sense to apply for services there, frankly speaking. These financial institutions do not specialize in money transfers. Their strong points are investments, capital protection, and asset growth. Such banks can be found in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, and Lichtenstein.   

There are also ‘universal’ banks that provide both for money transfer and investment possibilities. Such banks can be found in Cyprus.

Another opportunity that you must consider is setting up an account with a payment system that is licensed by a European Central Bank. Such payment systems are least demanding to the clients, their services are comparatively inexpensive, and the spectrum of services that they offer is impressive indeed.

How to choose the bank for offshore company

When deliberating what bank to apply to in order to set up an account for your offshore company, you have to take the following factors into consideration:

• The bank’s specialization;
•  The range of services that it provides;
• The availability of Internet and mobile banking applications;
• The possibility to open an account remotely;
• The commission rates;
• The availability of bankcards;
• The currencies that the bank works with;
• The availability of multilingual customer support;
• The speed of application processing;
• The volume of information and the number of documents that the bank requests to open an account for an offshore company;
• The possibility to work with electronic moneys and cryptocurrencies;
• The payment zones such as SWIFT or SEPA;
• The possibility to obtain an IBAN;
• The bank’s requirements to the company registration jurisdiction and business areas;
• The account insurance amount;
• The level of confidentiality protection. 

What kind of bank account does your offshore company need? 

Corporate accounts can be of various kinds. These are:

• Current account;
• Card account;
• Investment account;
• Merchant account;
• Broker’s account;
• Savings account. 

In most cases, there is a possibility to open a multicurrency bank account for your offshore company. Otherwise, it is possible to set up several accounts for different currencies. The currencies are converted in accordance with the bank rules. Normally, the current market exchange rate is applied. 

How does a current account differ from a savings account? A current account is used for ongoing transactions. You can use the money that you have on the account to make various payments. The bank officers will monitor the payment purposes and destinations to make sure that the account is not being used for money laundering or terrorism financing.

A savings account is used to accumulate funds. As a rule, the number of transactions to and from such an account is much smaller than the number of transactions going through a current account.  

When opening a corporate bank account for your offshore company, you should also consider the opportunity to set up a personal account with the same bank. Banks love opening personal accounts for their corporate clients! You can use your personal account for your own purposes – to buy things, to pay tuition, hospital bills, and so on. You can also order a personal pay card from the bank where you have a personal account. 

Additional banking products and services

Besides the traditional banking services, many banks offer additional opportunities to their clients. It can be a merchant account, for example, or a broker’s account that will give you access to stock exchanges and trading platforms. 

Moreover, you can make use of such banking products as bank guarantees, overdrafts, letters of credit, factoring services, and so on. 

Account currencies  

The main currencies used by offshore companies are the euro and the US dollar. Some banks will have pound sterling, Swiss franc, Polish zloty accounts available too. In any event, banks normally work with dozens of national currencies converting them into the major account currency. 

Pay cards

Acquiring corporate pay cards after setting up a bank account for your offshore company is a very good idea as they are a wonderful instrument indeed. They can be used by your employees to pay the business trip expenses as well as the current operational costs. 

Depending on the bank that you choose, you can acquire a VISA, a MasterCard, or an American Express card. 

The pay cards will have withdrawal limits and other limitations. They come in different types – Standard, Gold, Platinum, Elite – and the limits will depend upon the card type. VIP cards give access to a large number of banking services. 

How to open a bank account for your offshore company

Please apply for our preapproval service to set up a bank account for your offshore company. Describe your company and we will offer you several banks that are likely to take you onboard. We are not going to offer hopeless banks to you. 

The procedure of opening a bank account for your offshore company:

1. Place a request by sending a message to info@offshore-pro.info.
2. Consult our expert on the particularities of our services and cover their cost.
3. Collect the application document package following the expert’s recommendations. Fill out the bank application form (we will help you do that) and submit it to the bank. 

Application document package:

1. Personal identification documents for the company beneficiaries including owners, shareholders, directors, etc. If nominee services are used, the nominees’ IDs are also required.
2. A Power of Attorney authorizing us to apply for bank account opening on your behalf.
3. Proofs of residential addresses for the company beneficiaries.
4. Corporate document package for your offshore company.
5. Documents certifying the company registered legal address.
6. Forms that describe the company business activities, the expected account turnover, the company counteragents, and other data.
7. Additional documents that the bank Compliance Department may request. 

You are welcome to apply for a consultation on any of the issues described above. Please contact us and we will assist you in choosing the best bank where you can open an account for your offshore company. We have been in the business for years and we know what banks will take you onboard.